Pathfinder: The New Age of Haven

On the burned parchment are places on a map of the region that have been circled and marked with the spidery emblem. There are various lines drawn all over the map with one going straight through Morcastle. All lines diverge on a part of the parchment which is burned.

Thiasi says “Saved that just in time, now can you use that to kick their butts?”

Charlotte looks at the parchment and suggests looking for a complete map to compare it to.

Ianthe thanks Thiasti says, “My pleasure. And im afraid that is all the map you are likely to find here atleast.
Im guessing that this isnt the only lair they have though…”

Rukh walks away from the gang and rests against the wall for support and to get back his breath from the fight we just had..

Avin repeats what Charlotte says in a somewhat longer way and Charlotte grumbles that she said that.

Thiasti snaps his fingers. “Dang clever that!”

Ianthe decides it is worth trying.

Halion claps and gushes that Avin is so smart.

Charlotte suggests either heading back to find out where the lines lead to or fighting through each HQ for funsies.

Ianthe seems to agree.

Rukh seems to have lost what little mind he has as he has now regressed to that of a child, playing with a charred doll.

Thiasti asks for a weapon. Ianthe tells him to check the corpses in the next room.

Each of the bodies have wicked daggers, some foodstuffs, one has a key, one has an empty bottle of some liquid, one has a sling and another has a bow and 12 arrows.

Charlotte comes across a room with a deactivated portal, a body with an arrow in its head and not much else. She yells to Avin to make the portal work. The body has nothing but the emblem, some pocket change(3g) and a dagger so she takes the money and the emblem.

Thaisti arms himself with the bow, the arrows and one of the daggers. He grabs some shoes off of one and curses as they are too big. He ties them around his feet with some string to keep them on.

Everyone else goes to unlock the door at the back. The room beyond is pitch black and only Ianthe can see. There are bodies everywhere and blood. There is movement in the back. She wonders if these are the remains of the missing families. Rukh puts the doll away and joins Ianthe.

“Anyone got a torch?” Asks Charlotte.

Ianthe calls out to see if anyone is there. She feels stupid doing so. Avin lights her axe ((Disco Inferno)) so she can see inside the room. Everyone takes a step inside.

As Charlotte enters she sees the source of the movement and hears sobs and pleas. At the back of the room is someone straddling a smaller figure, sounds like its a woman speaking or sobbing something.

Halion tells any ghosts to stop being spooky, while Charlotte moves over to the crying lady. As Charlotte approaches the crying figure is heard pleaing with someone but you cant quite tell before she abruptly turns towards her.

“WHO?!” she shouts in a choked up voice before she is interrupted by the figure under hear reaching up and bringing its teeth on her neck. “Annabelle, it’s…me…it’s…mommy.” The undead creature does not relent. The zombie is that of a little girl. Rukh tries to distract it with the doll. The zombie is only focused on Charlotte. She cleaves it in twain and combat ends. Rukh gasps.

The woman on the floor is covered in the remains of the other zombie, she clutches at it feebly as if to pull it closer. A moment later the few last squirts of blood escape from her neck and her eyes glaze over.

Rukh drops the doll and goes numb. Ianthe is concerned about the lady, but luckily, there is no zombification.

Thiasti appears and is inappropriate while Rukh kneels and cries like baby beside the zombie girl.

The rest of the room is empty. Charlotte leaves that cave, looking for a way out, and see the tell tale signs of daylight on the far passaged. As she heads towards it, Thiasti stops her. “I was heading out but I saw two sentries. I’m not confident in my abilities but maybe with your help we can get by without incident.”

“Yeah by killing them.” She says

“Exactly, we can take them down quite easily if we strike at once.”

Rukh moves the dead woman up so she is sitting and then moves the little girl so they are in each others arms.. Then takes the doll and puts it in between them.

We see two sentires sat outside the cave, upon closer examination we can see some jars of wine next to them. They appear to be sleeping.

Charlotte and Rukh are quite happy to kill them while they sleep but Ianthe doesn’t like the idea. Charlotte wants to kill them anyway. Thiasti agrees with Charlotte.

Charlotte approaches the left sentry. Rukh nods and goes in the direction of the right sentry. We don’t wake them. They are entirely helpless.

Rukh moves his sword up towards the sentry and plunges it towards it’s chest. Rukh impales the sentry, piercing her lungs and causing her to yelp a scream before dying.

Charlotte brings her axe down on her sentry, but he doesn’t manage to scream at all. His head is lopped off in one clean stroke and tumbles down the sloping hallway towards the rest of the group.

“For Annabelle and her mother!” Yells Rukh. Charlotte turns to Ianthe and tells her that he had a better death than he deserved. Rukh sheaths his sword and walks away, shedding one final tear for the child and mother.

Thiasti stops the rolling head and stares at it for a moment, before kicking it further down into the darkness of the cave.

Ianthe is annoyed that she could only save one person (Thiasti) but is grateful that she saved anyone at all. Charlotte wants to go home and rest.

Halion moves on while humming a little tune.

AND SO THEYWENT…

We find ourselves in the wilderness. Thick forest in all directions and no landmarks that we can see. Where the hell are we?

Halion seems to know somewhat where we are but chooses not to tell us?

“Alrighty! Everyone stop being silly and follow me!” Halion starts to lead the way.

Charlotte tangles herself in some vines somehow like a stupid city baka and gets abit stuck, trying to get through the tough growth. Suddenly we hear a rustle and a swish(and possibly a shing). The vines fall away, showing a giant mantis.
The mantis does a backflip and lands next to Halion, twitching its head up at her.

Everyone is a bit stunned. The giant mantis bounces back on it’s legs at this noise, unsure if an attack is coming or not.

Halion laughs nervously. “Well uh…lets get moving again gang! It’s bad to waste time when you’re all weak and not hundreds of years old! Ha!” The mantis chitters happily and bounces along, cutting vines up.

AND SO THEYWENT…AGAIN…

Halion knows that these weird young races are prone to sleepiness so she can choose where in the wilds to settle down for the night. Ianthe yawns. “I heard a yawn! That means it’s time to camp for the night!” Halion stops in her tracks.

We make up a camp.

Halion senses the winds and air pressure and knows that there will be rain in a few hours. Maybe even a thunderstorm.
It is now entirely night. The stars are clear and twinkling up above the treelines.

We stand/lie around for a while until the rain starts.
We are now in the rain.
The rain is wet.
We are now wet.

Ianthe Eir sneezes and wraps the sleeping roll around her even tighter.

Ianthe and Charlotte cannot rest well and wakes up feeling fatigued. It is still thundering and raining when dawn hits. The smells in the air are musty and damp, and the only sounds you hear are the rain hitting the mud and plants.

Rukh grumbles to Ianthe that she should come over to stay under the trees.. its not AS wet there.

Ianthe Eir tells Rukh he still has blood all over him since he skipped the washing in the evening.

Ianthe Eir stays where she is and tries to warm her hands.

Rukh unhooks his armor and takes it off then goes over it cleaning and checking if it needs fixing. The armor is worn, but not to the point where it needs repairs. Everyone begins morning rituals except Charlotte who has a nap.

“That’s enough rest for now! Lets get moving before you all die of old age.” Halion starts another TRAIL WE BLAZE.

The giant mantis happily leaps about and slashes the foilage in front of Halion as they move.

Our group ventures through the wilderness for about an hour. Halion suddenly realizes we should have hit a river by now. This ain’t right. Luckily though, the rain has let up.

Our group continues trudging through the forest for another hour. Still no river in sight. Apparently we’re all blind and dumb except Halion.

Ianthe questions Halion’s sense of direction. She tries to respond, but the giant mantis cuts her off as he slices down a particularly large piece of vine and reveals a large clearing… where a giant rock golem is sat, eating the carcass of a slain animal. The giant mantis hiss at rock golem, and rock golem narrows its eye sockets at us.

The sounds of Charlotte’s boot kicking open the rotted wodden door echoes around the large cavern and the passage behind us. Everything falls silent in the cavern ahead of us, letting us hear the spaciousness of the dark, dank hole in the ground we find ourselves in.

We all see it at once, the darkness of the cave gives away to the otherworldly glow of a crystal, hanging slightly off the ground over a grating in the middle of the cavern. The glow seems to swirl around and inside the crystal, ghostly wisps of light blue pulsating smoke reaching out and around the crystal but being dragged back through its center.A moment later we see the carnage around it. Four cultists stand around and all turn towards us at once.

Then we see the cages and bloody traces of what has gone on here.

“Intruders!” shouts one.

Ianthe hides behind Rukh.

“Get the crystal!” Shouts faceless cultist as he unsheathes his fierce dagger, they all do. Like the bastards they are.

Halion moves first however. She shoots an arrow and stays back. Charlotte hacks at one with her flaming axe. One of the cultists grabs the crystal. His friend throws a “fancy thing” (dagger) at Charlotte and misses. Another guy goes for the stabbing and also misses. The last one pulls out a potion and throws it at the doorway, causing a poisonous gas which will damage anyone who passes through it.

Rukh stumbles through the cloud and enrages, charging a cultist. The cultist Rukh approaches says “You fool!” The cultist tries to defend himself, but misses so Rukh attacks and hits.

Ianthe can’t really see past the cloud. She has no option but to run through and try to help. She casts cure light wounds on Rukh. Rukh feels energized and grunts at the enemy in front of him.

Halion grudgingly moves through the smoke, avoiding the damage from the poison gas completely.
She attacks and “bloodies” a cultist.

Avin has woken up from his shock and considers igniting the gas and blowing everyone up, but instead trudges through it to attack a cultist. He inhales a bit too hard and takes a fair amount of damage. Grumbling, he summons a Reefclaw. It attacks the cultist holding the crystal. The cultist is poisoned and grabbed.

Charlotte attacks! The Charlotte cultist shouts in defiance as the Disco Inferno comes down on him. As he attempts to block, Charlotte cuts through three of his fingers and deep into his shoulder. The cultist collapses in a bloody heap, his last breath hissing through the blood filling his mouth. Charlotte moves to help the Reefclaw.

The cultist not in battle takes the crystal from the guy who is chilling with Charlotte and the Reefclaw, but the Reefclaw sees this and attacks. It hits for a small amount of damage. The cultist who is grappled tries to escape but fails.

Ianthe stands around and wonders what to do for a while. “Does anyone need healing? No? Inflict light wounds it is!” She strolls over to the cultist with the crystal, smiles at him politely, and casts. While she does so, she has a cup of tea and asks the cultist how his day is going. He grunts and shrugs in response. When she finally casts, he steps to the side and the spell doesn’t even graze him.

Halion’s turn! She fires an arrow and misses. The cultist looks around dumbly, wondering what that whistling noise that went by his ear was.

Avin moves away and casts fire jet. It hits.

Charlotte attacks and misses. The cultist holding the crystal throws it across the room. While he does this, the Reefclaw attacks and hits. It then snaps the neck of the cultist it is grappling.

The cultist opens the lock on the grate that Charlotte and the Reefclaw are standing on. We hear a low growl.

The new guy begins a monologue. “You certainly have done it now. You do not know what you have gotten yourselves into!”

“But like all would be heroes, you do not care what we are doing, why we are doing it…what we want..”

He takes a defiant step towards Avin and Halion. He chuckles. “Humor me, please,” he calmly gestures at you. “Ask me what i want from all of this.”

Ianthe smiles, trying to distract clearly important but all too chatty guy. “Oh fine. Since you want to talk…. Tell me.”

The masked man smiles wide, so wide you can tell hes smiling under the mask of bone. “Simple!”

“THEWORLD!” He shouts.

A moment later he appears at the top of the wall, with the ladder kicked down, holding the crystal.

Rukh draws his sword and chases after the cultist he was fighting. He misses with his attack.

Ianthe backs away from the alive guy so she won’t get smacked.

Halion moves so she has a clearer shot and attacks the self important bent on world domination guy and hits. He gets an arrow to his shoulder. He turns around, eyes full of hate, and yells “Fuck this!.” He will remember Halion.

Avin moves closer and decides to drop a Reefclaw on his head. The GM can’t find a rule against this, so tries. The Reefclaw falls from the ceiling and lands on the guy. The reefclaw takes a small amount of damage and the guy is stunned. Reefclaw attacks while prone and grabs and poisons the guy.

Charlotte is too tired to reach the ledge, so she attacks the remaining cultist and attacks and hits. It tries to maul the guy next to him, but fails and vanishes in a puff of smoke. The cultist attacks Charlotte and does 5 damage.

The cultist realises it is a failure and sad faces.

The guy with a superiority complex tries to escape the grapple. He succeeds. He fires off a spell. The cave lights up for an instant on the ledge and then it’s gone again. The Reefclaw is dead and the adventurers are left wondering how fair the GM is.

Ianthe replaces the ladder. Halion climbs up the ladder to chase the Master of Faggotry. He gets half way up. Avin unfortunately can’t follow because Halion’s fatass is in the way. He decides to wait.

Charlotte lifts her axe for one final attack against the cultist, bringing it down on his face. He dies, blood everywhere, Charlotte smirks.

The cultist engaged with Rukh glances at the grate and legs it. Rukh chases after him. He deaded him.

Ianthe wonders what she should be doing. She is unsettled by the pounding on the grate.

Halion braces herself to climb the last of the ladder. With one final burst of energy, she pulls herself onto the ledge. The guy has run off.

Avin has sod all to do apparently. A nap seems appealing. Avin notices that the cultists have been feeding whatever beast is down there with humans and probably has a taste for humans. By the sound of things, he is hungry.

Charlotte begins to climb the ladder. The grate swings open without Charlotte’s weight on it and Spooky Scary Skeleton Man appears! It begins to feed on a corpse.

Rukh turns around to see the SSSM and wanders over to see what’s up. He picks up his weapon when he reaches it. He is still raging so all sneaking goes out the window.

Ianthe uses a channelled spell which damages SSSM and heals us.

Halion finds a portal!

And fires an arrow through it.

Avin fires a flame jet at SSSM and does some damage. Charlotte jumps down and charges SSSM, hitting hard. Halion watches as a barrel covered in glowing runes and a guy with an arrow in his head fall through the portal. Rukh attacks, visibly calming as his enrage begins to fade. He flanks SSSM and attacks, but his sword seems slide off of SSSM’s scales. Ianthe casts her channel again, dealing a largish amount of damage to poor SSSM.

Halion considers knocking the barrel back. She rushes over and punts it square through the portal. Everything is good in the hood. Avin uses fire jet again (surprise surprise) and hits. It wasn’t as awesome as it could have been. Charlotte attacks and misses. She decides to glare at it until her next turn.

Guts and debris shoot at Halion. She pulls a matrix and avoids NONE of it. She takes a bit of damage from the debris. The portal shuts down. She can’t help but think that someone somewhere is having a bad day.

SSSM attacks Charlotte twice. It does piddly damage. She laughs. Rukh is calm and fatigued while he attacks so his sword bounces off the scales on his butt.

Ianthe moves her pretty ass next to Charlotte and casts a heal while groping the unsuspecting barbarian (Rukh misses this or he would be mad jelly).

Halion stands and moves towards the group. Avin casts flame jet yet again and does another tiny amount of damage. Charlotte hits super hard again. SSSM rears up, yells “FUCKALLYOUGUYS” and tries to scare the shit out of us. Charlotte, Rukh and Avin avoid messing their pants. Ianthe is not so lucky. She is teleported away.

SSSM attacks Charlotte and misses. Rukh attacks and hits. Ianthe fills the cavern with happy energy. This makes SSSM uncomfortable so he flails, burns in holy fire and falls into the pit while his skin melts from his bones. The smell of pork fills the air. Rukh and Charlotte are hungry.

The cave is once again eerily quiet aside from the sounds of sizzling coming from the pit.
Ianthe:

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Rukh falls down to the ground panting and gasping for air from being fatigued.

Avin and Halion examines the surroundings and corpses. Halion is shocked to see dead shit. There appears to be a cloaked dude sitting in the cage.

“You don’t look like a necromancer…Are you the ones who caused the kerfuffle?”

He removes his cloak revealing the face of an elf, with many scars and wounds on his face.

“Who are you?” Says Ianthe.

“I do cause a little trouble now and again.” Halion beams at the man. “I suppose you want to get out of the cage.”

The surrounding area is a scorched office or lab, the many books and papers scattered about are all burnt or burning. The man nods “That would be a nice treat, yes. That bastard had his fun with all of us for days.”

“May I offer you a heal? Since I highly doubt you have any positive opinion about these necromancers” Says Ianthe.

Halion shrugs. “I’m bad with human locks sorry…someone else will do it though.”

“I am Thaisti. Pleasure to see some friendly faces, even one of my own kind for once.” The cloaked dude explains.

“My thanks” says Thaisti as Ianthe heals him.

Rukh gets on his feet and checks the cages that has lots of blood around them. Rukh sees the remains of captives, some bones but mostly blood.

“Would you mind telling us what on earth has been going in here? Maybe you heard something from the necromancers?” asks Ianthe.

“That I have. But I would appreciate it if i could get out first. Not that I don’t trust you, but I’ve been in here for an awful amount of time.”

The tables are covered in torture instruments, broken vials, burned books and parchments and scrolls. Ianthe searches for a key.

Rukh mutters to himself “Poor Souls” and checks the area around the bloodied cages if there is anything of use. Rukh finds a small toy, a rabbit doll in one of the cages. Rukh picks up the small rabbit doll. It has a note on the back. “Annabelle”. Rukh hugs the doll and imagines the terror this little girl must have gone through and sheds a tear for her.

Avin doesn’t find any more of the bottles on the fellows. Just dagger and throwing knives, and a small spent bottle of poison each.

Charlotte stops attacking the lock so that Halion can try the key. Halion tries the key on the lock. “This should do it…”

The lock pops open and as soon as it does the elf gently pushes the cage open and steps outside. The man stretches with the most pleasure you could imagine. “Thank you friends, I was going insane in there.”

“Since you are all here, and not in a hurry, it seems you have bested the inhabitants of this foul dwelling. Am I correct?”

“Yes, though I am not sure what happened to the guy with skull mask. He took the crystal at least…” Ianthe answers. “I still have no clue what exactly is the meaning of this said crystal anyways.”

“One ran away through a portal and sort of uh…threw explosives at me.” Halion frowns. “I managed to roll them back through but I’m afraid it took out the portal.” She seems quite proud of herself.

The elf smiles “At least you gave them something to remember you by. This makes me happy.”

The man staggers slightly as relief washes over him, he holds onto the cage and winces before retracting his hand quickly. “Still hot”

His eyes light up and Ianthe offers him food. “Bless you!” He takes them with all the dignity he can muster and gobbles it down. He finishes in record time “So tell me…” he swallows the remainder of the food in his mouth “Are you going to finish the job?”

Rukh asks if anyone knows a girl called Annabelle.

“What job?” Ianthe looks confused.

“I would like to give the skull mask guy a good talking too about why putting people in cages is wrong so uh…yes.” Halion chuckles nervously.

“Well..” he shrugs at Ianthe “You did just attack a necromancer cult… they wont quit” The elf smiles at Halion like he would a child “You are correct on that note, kin.”

“We have been trying to find out what’s going on with that. They’ve been attacking and taking families in our town. No one seems to know anything about them. Except that they are necromancers. And these guys here didn’t exactly tell us anything either.”

“Well, I believe I can help. It seems that its not just your town. The people I spoke to here were from different part of the lands. Hell, these two were from across the seas.” He gestures to the burned carcasses.

“From what I can tell…they were killing people as efficiently as possible to fuel that..crystal.”

“Hrm. Any clue what they are going to use the crystal for?” Ianthe asks.

“No, but it was apparently not the only one. The boss here mentioned others, doing the same thing, elsewhere. Whatever it is though, I feel its bad news.”

“Too bad we can’t figure out where that portal led…”

The elf smiles and licks the rations off his lips “Ah, but maybe you can. I was going to sell or give this to someone with an army or something, but honestly I think you guys will actually do something about this.”

“I mean, its either that or die right?” He laughs slightly more maniacally than is appropriate, and he coughs to interrupt himself before pulling out a slightly burnt parchment. “I saved this from the fireball, didn’t think he expected me to survive it.”

The elf holds up a piece of parchment to Ianthe “Consider it thanks, and a plea for finishing this.”

“Thank you.” She takes the parchment to examine it. Reaction images were posted everywhere in the imaginary chat window as she responds to the parchment.

We take a look around the bodies and find a note in one guy’s pockets. Halion loots it and shows it to Avin who reads it out.
Where the path of ignorance crosses over the river of filth
The watcher waits
2 Moons overhead
4 Riders on the eastern hill
1 Lord below in waiting
The watcher then takes the blood offering

The note that was dropped reads:

Your actions are getting noticed.
Worse than that, your actions are being tied to the brotherhood.
Cease your operations in Morcastle. This is your final warning.

- The Master

Charlotte and Avin notice the stench growing stronger and all the corpses spontaneously combust. Charlotte narrowly avoids the fire. We decide to leave before the guards arrive. Although we encounter guards on the way back to the tavern, we are ignored.

At the inn, we show Ursula the note and while she stares off into the middle distance, we bicker. Eventurally, she comes to and says “I got it! The bridge!”

Avin offers Halion the sword that Tevaga left behind while Ursula explains The Bridge, but she doesn’t want it. Avin suggests selling it and using the profits for crafting.

“See, from ages ago they used to say that the path of ignorance was the main road going through town. Used by the wealthiest to get to and from their elaborate homes. And the river of filth is the smaller river that joins the main river at the docks district. And theres only one place in the entire city where you have that side-river AND the main road. Called river of filth by some of the dockers because they dump their shit in it
Literally”

Charlotte suggests going to the bridge to “crack some skulls”.

“And maybe figure out the rest of the riddle.” Suggests Ianthe. Charlotte wants to leave now but Avin and Ianthe remind her that it is late.

They go to bed, while Charlotte stays up grumping about celestials.

The next morning, Charlotte wakes everyone up. Ianthe demands a cup of tea before leaving so Avin and Charlotte threaten to leave her behind. Halion seems anxious to head out too, so Ianthe reluctantly leaves.

We all head off to the bridge. Ursula directs us to the position of the bridge.

The bridgeis busy as ever when we arrives. Merchants are carrying their wares, runners are making deliveries and common people are making their way. A few beggars sit around the thick solid walls of the bridge. Other than a few sconces for torches, you see nothing out of the ordinary.

Ianthe wonders about “the watcher” from the riddle and Avin suggests we look under the bridge. He asks which direction is east. Charlotte points at the rising sun and says “That way.”

East is further up the road towards the merchant mile and finally the city gates. Some nobles pass us by with their retinues, remarking among themselves about how rabble should stay to the sides and not block the path.

We notice a tiny staircase lead off to the south and under the bridge.

Halion sighs. “Fiiiiiiine I’ll check under the bridge.” and so she did. Rukh warns her of trolls. Halion sees that under the bridge theres a seperate street of sorts, you could follow the river for quite some distance. Although the area is desserted right now. Halion notices small alcoves in the walls in the walls under the bridge. 4 of them on this side of the river and 4 on the other

Charlotte calls down and asks Halion if there is anything down there. “Little alcoves in the walls! Nothing super interesting just yet!”

Avin and Charlotte climb down to see. Ianthe asks Halion to check the alcoves. Rukh looks for flowers.

In the alcoves we see a tiled area with a single round emblem. Each alcove has a different emblem but the same tile pattern.

Ianthe Eir goes down the stairs too to check out the alcoves and emblems. The first and left-most of the alcoves has an emblem of a demon face with only a snarl. The second has a face with only ears. The third is a face with wide open eyes. The fourth has a “big ass nose”.

Avin says someone should prick their finger and poke the third emblem while he hides. Ianthe pokes the closest emblem. Nothing happens. Charlotte cuts her thumb on her axe and draws a smiley face on the third emblem in blood. She then stands back to admire her work. Nothing seems to happen.

Rukh walks down to the rest of the crew and sits on the stairs as he is not very smart when it comes to riddles and just counts the footprints on the ground.. if any.

Charlotte leans in closer to inspect it. She sees that surrounding the middle emblem is a perfectly symmetrical set of tiles, three on each of the four sides. Ianthe wonders if the tiles move. Charlotte tries. When charlotte touches the tiles they sink in slightly, but they spring out again almost immediately.

Ianthe wonders if the tiles represent the people in the riddle. Charlotte pushes two riles at randomly on the top row. Nothing happens.

Avin suggests top one twice, east one four times, south one once and last. Rukh mumbles something about use your big weapon Charlotte.. this is taking too long.

The emblem whirrs and lights up with a dull glow. Ianthe says “Now for the blood, I guess?”

Charlotte tries again with her bloody thumb. Ianthe readies her staff in case of bad things.

The emblem extinguishes and a low wobble sound is heard, then suddenly a bubble spreads out from the emblem and covers the alcove entirely. A shimmering portal stands before Charlotte. She is smug. “Aww yes.”

Charlotte offers to lead the way. Rukh perks up and walks down to the rest of the crew and cheers for Charlotte.
Ianthe Eir takes her not so precious staff and pokes through the portal carefully and pulls it out straight away. The staff is unharmed. Charlotte sticks her hand in. No harm comes to it so she steps in, followed by everyone else.

We step through and immediately we find ourselves in a dank cave. The portal closes behind us and we are left in mostly darkness.. Avin casts light on his staff. Charlotte leads the way, anxious to explore. Charlotte steps on a trap. Black tendrils shoot out from the wall and swipes at Charlotte, hitting her square in her angry face. Causing her to be exhausted.

Charlotte continues exploring. Ianthe asks if she is ok, Charlotte insists that she’s fine. Avin realises that the trap was Ray of Exhaustion. Ianthe and Rukh follow Charlotte. Charlotte steps on another trap. A thing pops out and hits. A shoot opens up an a green thing hits her in the chest. Green slime! Charlotte recognises that the slime wants to eat her. It also noms on her weapon. Earthbreaker is destroyed. As the weapon is eaten, it falls to the ground. We know that the green slime can be dealt with by fire damage.

Rukh chooses not to help. Charlotte hits it with her flaming greataxe and it disintegrates before it can attack the blade. Charlotte and Rukh keep moving.

As we get closer to the door, we hear muffled speech coming from the other side. Ianthe uses detect undead. Charlotte just wants to open the door. Ianthe detects a lot of undead. However, it seems to be focused around one spot. We all listen carefully.

The group met up at HQ before dusk, and at the sound of the nights watch bells they left for the warehouse, minus a drunken Nommin sleeping under the table and Halion who has stayed out to investigate.

The once bustling streets were desolate and the guard patrols few. After Halion cruelly taunted Rukh with some flowers for a bit, Ianthe tried knocking on the front door of the warehouse. She tried to use a long spiel about a lost item she wanted to return, but was ignored even after simplifying things. Halion went to a sliding side door for a peek, even though she couldn’t see anything she heard arguing voices. Avin listens with Halion while Tevaga boots Ianthe up for a look through the window on the other side of the building. Rukh kept watch near the front door.

In the room there were 3 sinister figures in black robes, and a group of nervous men looking ready to draw their weapons with one in particular that seemed to be their leader. There was argument about some sort of deal, nonpayment and mentioned a master and plans yet to be revealed. Instead of stepping into the middle of things, the group waited to see what would happen. Tevaga wanted a look and switched places with Ianthe just in time to see one of the robed figures pull out a white crystal which exploded! The flash momentarily blinded Tevaga and she fell off Ianthe’s shoulders.

Screaming and the sound of magic could be heard, those at the sliding door threw it open entering the fight. All the men were dead on the floor, and the creepy figures turned their attention to the intruders. Avin began by summoning a fire elemental and was hit with acid. Charlottle lept over a weapon rack towards the enemy, soaking damage with her own rack. Meanwhile Rukh was trying to go in through the newly repaired front door, hacking at it with his sword. Avin summoned REEFCLAW to the fight and they eventually manage to defeat the necromancers and the corpses of the dead men which had been raised. Among the items left behind they find each of them were had amulets with the same symbol they had been shown and a note which had been left on the ground.

Tevaga was able to track the Dwarf to a building, but as she snuck closer, it turned out not to be the gangs headquarters, but his home. His wife and children were already packing, and soon he ushered them out into the streets towards the city gates. Tevage poked around in what was left behind but couldn’t find any clues or valuables, so she decided to return to the tavern, where only Halion seemed to be left awake (don’t these elves ever sleep?). Tevaga asked her for advice and the Elf decided it would be much better to let everyone get some rest than to go do stuff in the dark night, so Tevaga turned in for the night and everyone slept like daisies, or, in the case of some more audible partymembers, probably trumpetflowers.

The next morning Ursula served our heroes one of her special brews as a thank you for their assistance against the intruders. Reassured it would work wonders against his headache, Nommin downed his mug in one go, and, as this clearly was something else than he was used to, as almost instantly he slumped from his chair and soon was snoring under the table. Meanwhile the rest of the party discussed their options after Tevaga told them the Dwarven bandit had left the city. Catching up with him would prove impossible as he had quite a headstart, so if he would fall prey to his former employers there was not much our heroes would be able to do. After the extensive meal they decided to follow up on the information they had extracted from the dwarf and go to the butchers shop in the Docks District.
The party got their stuff and Ianthe woke Nommin in quite an indemnifying manner by magically creating a blob of water that dropped down on his head, soaking him instantly. This did not exactly help his mood, so the party, including a grumpy dwarf, took off towards the gate to the Docks. The guard let them pass, but Rukh decided this would be a good time to pick a fight. The guard however seemed quite used to these kinds of provocations and just told him to “piss off!”. Questions by Ianthe and Nommin didn’t turn up much more information than that the gatewardens knew nothing and inquiries would better be addressed to the officers at the Guard Headquarters. Thus, the party moved on to the butchers’. Ianthe tried her best diplomatic skills to get the butcher to warm up to her and spill whatever information he had to offer, even purchasing a large amount of bacon, but the barbarians barging into the shop being … well … barbarians … didn’t really help, and as the party wizard started putrefying the meat with his magic tricks the atmosphere soon went sour, finally escalating when Nommin, who had snuck into the backroom, tumbled down a barrel of sausages as he was trying to find out if there weren’t any human body parts laying around, and as the butcher ran to the back and pulled nommin out of the barrel, Avin instantly started calling the dwarf a thief, prompting the butcher to call the guards. It took quite a lot of barbaric persuasion to calm down the butcher, but assisted by a daze spell from the wizard, he soon sung like a bird, but couldn’t add much to the parties investigation.
So the party left, Ianthe, feeling bad for the parties rough behavior, left gold on the counter to compensate for the damages.
With little other options, our companions decided to explore the surroundings of the shop. Heading into a backalley, a stranger runs into them. The heroes’ dour appearance frightens him, and, still a bit dazed from the collision, he assumes he’s being mugged. Our heroes attempts to comfort him only aggravate the situation, and when he offers all his money if they spare his life, Charlotte gladly pockets the money, earning stern looks from the other partymembers for this act of evil. In the end however, through not little efforts of Ianthe, the man who appears to be an errand runner for the shops in the neighbourhood, is convinced of the heroes good intentions (well, at least he believes they’re not going to kill him), and he tells them strangers operate out of a nearby warehouse at night.
Even as the frightened man runs off, our heroes move to the warehouse, Charlotte setting the mood by violently kicking the (unlocked) door out of its hinges. Inside a clerk and a guard are alarmed, as the group claims this was an unlucky accident, the clerk demands reparations. Halion is perplexed by all this chaos and brutality but the barbarians don’t seem much impressed with this. Ianthe comes up with a ruse, telling the clerk they have found an item in front of the storehouse last night that they wish to return. Eventually they learn that there is a group that rents the place in the evening, but the clerk does not want to compromise his clients privacy. The party decides to leave and come back later. Avin decides to return to the inn, Nommin stomps off after him after being scolded for being unhelpful at the butcher, and the rest decide to go to the guard headquarters to gather information. All but Halion, who, apparently, everyone forgot about. She decides it might be a good idea to just wait around and get abducted. But she is only approached by a flowergirl who gives the charming elf a flower, which the elf happily accepts.

At the guardhouse Ianthe and Tevaga acquire a list of all the incidents reported about missing people. They learn the only wizard at the guards disposal is the Kings personal advisor and he can not be approached by mere commoners. With this they return to the inn where Ianthe approaches Ursula about the King’s wizard, but she can’t be of much help either …

Ursula turns up and informs us that the farmers have finished their harvest and are holding the harvest festival. Thanks to us harvest was pretty good so they would like us to join them in the celebrations as guests of honour.
Do we go?

Avin wants to examine turnips for magickal effects.

We all go to the harvest festival and are shown to our seats at the main table. Band playing, kegs everywhere, food everywhere. Everyone is joking.

“Thanks for killing the beast who ate Bessie etc etc” (drunk speech). Everyone cheers. People come up to us, slap us on the back, hand us drinks.

A lady walks up to Rukh, asks him to dance. He looks at Ianthe and waits for her approval. He agrees. Woman is drunk off her tits, they are clumsy and nearly fall in the fire. Everyone is laughing.

A random guy bumps into everyone, asks charlotte to dance, she refuses, he calls her ugly and hits on someone else instead. She throws a tankard and he falls over. His mates kind of notice but don’t care.

Everyone leaves. Everyone starts trying to put knocked out guy in compromising positions. Avin and Halion head back to the tavern. Charlotte drinks from the pissing tankard and then goes home. Everyone else leaves.

It is very dark at the tavern, the door is locked. a guy answers the door and says its closed and then locks us out. Rukh sees someone. We look in the windows.

We find Ursula being threatened so we barge in and attack (Halion does some fancy shit and comes in from round the other side of the building). A dwarf bandit grabs her and drags her away. A scraggly dwarf appears while we are dispatching the bandit dwarf’s friends and goes to Ursula’s rescue. He is all “rawrshit”. The bandit dwarf is taken out, flies across the room and he is unconscious.

His bros see this and pretty much decide “fuck this shit” and legs it. we sit down and have a chinwag. Rukh goes to the dwarf and kicks it?

Nommin is off tracking. He comes back later but doesn’t find anything. Dwarf bandit leader is like “oh no my legs”. Rukh tries lifting him by his legs, but he punches him in the dick so he drops him. He tries to make his escape (crippled and concussed) but Charlotte grapples him and ties him to a chair.

We try questioning him. He thinks we will kill him and refuses to answer any questions. We threaten to kill him if he doesn’t tell us. Ianthe points out bandits will kill him anyway. he agrees to talk to us.

“We’re an outfit out of, well, you wouldn’t know it…it’s the slums… get this, a couple of months ago, we get this old geezer in all black, like some kind of wizard. Like a necromancer or something. All skellys and stuff. Anyways, he told me and the boys that if we do jobs for him, he’ll reward us. and of course, we were just waiting for a chance for the big times. Guess what they wanted?”

Ianthe, “They wanted you to cause a commotion?”

“Oh no, they just wanted a nobody, like a little family. Not to start one, they just wanted mom and dad and children for whatever they wanted. I know what you’re gonna say, that is horrible, well I guess that necro didn’t want them as a family. So we found this old family that were living in outskirts in farms, so we broke in took them out and dragged them to the meeting place, got money and that was that. He gave us this emblem of sorts. Someone get it out my pocket.”

Charlotte picks him up (chair and all) and shakes him and the emblem falls out. Ianthe studies it. It is an intricate design that reminds her of a spider.

“Where is your headquarters?” asks Avin. “Where can we find the necromancer?”

“If I told you can I go?”

Ianthe looks at everyone else.

We decide to let him go so Tevaga can follow him. We ask again where the necromancer is, but he doesn’t know.

“Are you lying?” Avin asks.

“NO!”

“Tell us where he is.”

“Butchers, right in the back alley at night. But don’t go there, there’s a group of guys there.”

We untie him and he leaves, with Tevaga close behind. He bumps into Nommin on the way past. “We coo’ dwarf bro?”

“You let him go? Idiots…” Says Nommin.

We have a scuffle with the leftover dudes. We let them leave, Charlotte drinks, everyone goes to bed.

Across the water, the creature’s treasure awaits the adventurers, but unsurprisingly, no one is very willing to cross. Avin, who had studied the pillar and figured out the trick to water breathing, steps back from the edge of the pool, wary of what else lurks beneath. He explains to the group how to use the water breathing, and waits for someone else to take the lead.

Ianthe steps forward, and uses the pillar. The charm dissapates from Avin and switches to her instead. However, Rukh stops her. “Charlotte should take it.” True, a barbarian should be the one to swim across, who knew what else we would encounter.

Charlotte rolls her eyes and takes the buff. She swims across without incident. She approaches the chest. The lid is old and heavy and creaks as she lifts it. As it opens fully, the rusted hinges give way and the lid falls away entirely. Inside the chest is an ornate longsword with a dragon shaped hilt, a leather pouch full of gold (175), and a couple of potions that she could not identify.

She swims back, handing the items to Avin immediately to identify them. He studies the longsword first and he discovers it is the Dragonbane longsword (+1 longsword, 2d6 damage, +3 bonus to attack and damage against dragons).

Ianthe excitedly asks him to appraise it. Avin informs us it is worth roughly 8000 gold. Tevaga takes it from him, gives it a few test swings and asks the group if she can have it. Everyone seems happy for her to take it, except Avin who is visibly pissed off that its not a wizard’s item. She moves to the back of the group, pleased with her new loot.

The two potions are identified to be a potion of invisibility and a potion of levitate. Ianthe suggests that Tevaga also take the invisibility potion to help with her stealth. The group agrees and Avin shoves past everyone, who had been crowding around him to look at the loot, to hand it to her.

Charlotte moves ahead of the group, keen to explore the rest of the dungeon. She seems to walk carelessly, not checking traps, appearing to have forgotten about her previous encounter with the arrow trap. Sure enough, her heavy step triggers the all too recognisable sound of a pressure plate sliding into the floor, and the mechanical click and whir of an arrow trap. This time, however, she is ready for it. She raises Earthbreaker, swinging it at the arrow, deflecting it straight back from where it came from. It re-enters the hole with a satisfying crunch.

Charlotte smiles smugly and continues through the corridor. “What are we waiting for?” She whines as everyone else inches forward while Ianthe heals Rukh, who is still weak from the battle with Reefclaw. As she reaches the pressure plate, she curiously steps on it. The sliding of stone and stone and the click and whir of the trap warn her to move, but instead of the whoosh of the arrow, there is a loud and awful grinding noise, as the arrow that Charlotte had deflected catches in the gears, effectively disabling the trap entirely.

The king goblin, King Fatmouth recognises Charlotte as she re-enters his “chambers”. He asks in somewhat broken common if we had found his toy.

Ianthe, the most diplomatic of the group, takes the small toy from Avin, thanking him as she did so, and stepped forward to present it to the goblin. “Is this the one, your highness,” she says, mustering as much respect as she could. All of the goblins suddenly shriek and rush her, snatching the toy from her hands, jumping up and down in glee. They fell over each other going back to their King, and they settled down almost immediately into a relative silence as they played with it happily.

“Good, good, okay.” King Fatmouth says. “As promised, I believe if you intend on fighting the big black one, here is a tip. If you are here to fight him, which is silly, aim for the belly, he has soft belly scales. If you want to die, he sleeps up that wall.”

The group prepares to look for this dragon when an unfamiliar face appears in the entrance to the room along with Nommin (who had been waiting outside, somewhat afraid of what hides in the dark cave). He explains that this elf ranger had approached him as he waited, and seemed to wait to join us.

Nommin notices the goblins and looks back at is. “Why aren’t we killing them?” He asks, his voice low, unsure whether he should be cautious or not. Charlotte sighs loudly, expressing her own disagreement with the decision not to kill them. Ianthe explains to him that we chose not to, because they seemed friendly. Or at least not totally hostile. She also tells him about the enemies that we had encountered in the caves.

Nommin introduces us to the elf. “Wait, whats your name actually?”

“I didn’t say, I wouldn’t give my name to a dwarf!” She says.

Rukh growls at the elf, and she moves away, cautious of the half orc. Tevaga joins in the growling, both of them clearly not pleased with having an elf around. The rest of the group (excluding Nommin), welcome the newcomer.

The group head to the wall that King Fatmouth had pointed out. It seemed climbable. Rukh and Charlotte both try it, but fail to climb further than 10ft, so Halion climbs up and drops a rope that she finds secured at the top. Stubbornly, Charlotte climbs up, ignoring the rope, determined to make it on her own, and everyone else follows using the rope. Except Ianthe who can’t seem to get a real grip on neither the rope nor the wall. Rukh lifts her part way up and Nommin pulls her the rest of the way to the ledge that the rest of us were waiting on.

Charlotte rips the rope from its pin and winds it up, deciding that some rope might be useful later. She loops it over her back.

Nommin looks around the cave that we found ourselves in, and tells us that the room was clearly not built by dwarves. He mumbles something in Dwarvish about substandard work and what kind of idiot doesn’t know how to use tools properly.

Avin checks the structure to make sure that it won’t collapse on us. Luckily, it seems safe enough.

As we make our way through this first room, the soft shuffling that we had been hearing throughout the cave got louder and became the unmistakeable sound of bones rustling.

Skeletons attack!

Ianthe begs us not to die because she can’t heal at the moment. Thanks. So useful.

Charlotte attacks first, and destroys the closest one, Ianthe and Avin seem unable to do anything except try to keep away. Tevaga attacks the skeleton closest to her, but can’t seem to land a hit. A skeleton swings its rusty sword at Halion, its red dead eyes staring in anticipation of blood, but it misses. The one closest to Tevaga attacks her and hits, inflicting a shallow wound. The third skeleton charges after Rukh, trying to attack Avin as it passes (but missing) and then swings at Rukh (and misses again).

This enrages Rukh and he grapples it, dragging it forcibly to the ground. Nommin tries to help and attacks the skeleton being grappled with the butt of his crossbow. Charlotte moves across the room, Earthbreaker out, and strikes the skeleton attacking Halion, reducing it to a pile of dust. Tevaga’s skeleton attacks again, dealing more damage. Ianthe manages to use a heal, healing everyone and damaging all the skeletons a little. The one grappled by Rukh melts into fine dust. Rukh charges at the remaining skeleton to attack but misses. Tevaga disenages, Nommin readies his crossbow, Halion attacks with an arrow and hits, while Charlotte, with one final swing of Earthbreaker, finishes it.

Rukh continues to rage, roaring and snarling at everyone. Ianthe approaches him, trying to calm the half orc who she considers her brother, but he cannot control himself. He lashes out, killing the considerably weaker Assimar instantly, and then turning to the rest of the group who were watching him cautiously, already weakened by the fight…

He wakes up from the dream, realising that his rage had caused him to pass out. He cries like a little girl, still mourning the dream death of Ianthe. She comforts him.

Halion examines some flowers growing from the wall in the next hallway. She discovers that they can be used as part of a healing potion. She begins to help herself to them, saying to herself. “Nature belongs to the elves, so nature belongs to me…”

Tevaga takes some and goes to eat it, but Avin warns her not to.

“What should I do with it then?” She asks. Avin tells her to save it, so she pockets it for later.

Nommin takes a swing at the plant with his axe, but only succeeds in knocking a few leaves off. Charlotte instead tries burning it which proves far more successful. However, the aroma from the burning plant is mind altering. Although the group seems resilient to it’s properties, Nommin seems stoned out of his tiny mind.

We notice writing on the back wall. its goblin so Avin tries to read it. Charlotte stops him and steps first, testing for traps. The floor open up below her. She steps back quickly, narrowly avoiding falling into the depths. Avin reads it and finds that its just insults in Goblin.

We make our way into the next room (Tevaga first). we notice there is treasure and a hole in the ceiling. Tevaga creeps forward and a black dragon whelp notices her and lands.

The large black whelp roars, causing even the ground beneath us to tremble. As some of the group is still lagging behind, Avin identifies the roar as a dragon and alerts everyone else who can’t see it yet. He then moves towards the room and screams “Oh shit, a dragon.” as it comes into view.

Halion gets into range to fire at it, and Avin shouts to remind us to shoot at its belly. Halion does so. The dragon howls in anger more than pain.

Nommin is still stoned as he approaches. He takes out his crossbow and fires at the dragon’s wing, piercing it. Nommin then shouts some profanity in Abbysal.

The dragon inhales and attacks everyone in front it with an acid breath cone attack. Charlotte, who is still holding the gem, dodges it and resists damage, but everyone else takes damage. She then charges and attacks with Earthbreaker, but it bounces off its hard black scales.

Everyone else catches up and joins the battle, while Ianthe channels a spell from behind cover. Tevaga uses her Dragonbane sword to attack the whelp, driving it deep into its soft belly. It rears up and roars in pain. Avin attacks, but the dragon resists his spells. Halion shoots at it, and hits, doing a small amount of damage. Nommin, drunkenly reloads his crossbow and fires, but the bolt bounces off the scales.

The dragon coughs up some acid and reels back, lifting its ugly head and swipes at Charlotte. It then bites down on Tevaga, gripping her between the sharp teeth, giving her a quick shake and then lifting her clear off the ground and threw out of the room. The half orc, although still alive is slowly dying and unconscious.

However, the dragon stands on its rear legs, shouting in anger and defiance. It flies out of the room and disappears through the open ceiling.

Nommin knows that when the dragon leaves its loot like this, its definitely not coming back. In a somewhat stoned but booming voice he says “It is definitely not coming back! Hahahaha”. Halion knows it will find a new place to roost and will remember us. It will only get stronger. Ianthe squints at the sunlight and puts her covering back on. While Ianthe is working on Tevaga, Charlotte and Avin head straight for the treasure.

Charlotte finds a greataxe which is hot to touch. (+1 Greataxe of Flaming. Upon command, a flaming weapon is sheathed in fire, doing an extra 1d6 damage). She also finds 20 flaming arrows, a Staff of Curing, which is given to Ianthe, some half plate, a potion of bull strength, a scroll of fireball, a scroll of new life and 600 gold pieces scattered around the room.

In a curious cask is hidden a large gem, about the size of a head. This is unclear. Its almost dirty looking. Avin can’t decide what it is but he knows it is magical. Ianthe recognises religious power in it. It is very powerful but she can’t figure it out. It may be gambling related. Ianthe heals Tevaga a little more.

Halion felt a draught, so we head towards it. Charlotte notices the door and tugs on the torch beside it to open it. We all head inside and explore. We find rugs and some parchment which looks like its related to the gem we found. We roll up the parchment and take them with us. We tell the Goblins on the way down that we “killed” the dragon and head back to Morcastle.

Halion signs up to our adventuring company.

Ursula rewards us with 1000 gold for completing the quest. Before resting, we decide to split the gold between us. We give out 200 gold each, including Halion, and save 575 in the coffers for next month’s rent.

Into the cave!

As the dust settles from the previous fight, Gwayne and Nommin are discovered missing.
The rest of the group decides to heal and rest before entering the cave. Charlotte, freshly healed by Ianthe, keeps watch while Avin, Ianthe, Rukh and Tevaga sleep. In his sleep Rukh mumbles something about protecting cookies. With a peaceful rest, everyone is ready to enter the cave.

Charlotte leads the way into a cavern room lit by torchlight. There are straw beds near a locked chest to the south and a pile of bones in one corner. Avin pokes through the straw a bit but finds nothing of interest. Meanwhile Charlotte is heading cautiously towards the door in the hallway to the north. As she steps into the hallway a panel shifts, she tries to dodge out of the way but she isn’t fast enough and an arrow shoots out of the wall hitting her directly in the scro- shoulder! Ianthe sweetly asks if healing is needed, Charlotte snaps back “What the fuck do you think?!”. Ianthe heals Charlotte and Tevaga takes a look at the chest which is locked. Pulling some pins from behind her ear, she easily opens the simple lock to reveal a small ruby, masterwork dagger, 20 gold pieces and a small orange vial which Avin idetifies as a potion of cure light wounds. Avin takes the gold and ruby for the guild funds, giving the potion to Charlette and Tevaga takes the dagger.

With the arrow trap in mind, Rukh takes the empty chest and throws it at the door, nothing is triggered and the chest breaks apart. Ianthe is on full alert, glancing around nervously but finding nothing. Rukh steps closer towards the door and suddenly the ground beneath him falls away. He manages to grab onto the ledge with one hand, dangling above a 20 foot drop. Charlotte rushes to pull him up and easily gets him on safe footing. Even more nervous Ianthe looks around again but no more traps are found. Avin closely studies the arrow trap and determines that it can’t be set off again till it’s rewound and the group continues north.

Rukh pushes on the door and the group enters a brightly lit room. Angry goblin voices can be heard arguing nearby. Ianthe is instantly drawn to the brightly shining fountain which is lighting the entire room in it’s golden glow. She begins to carefully inspect the runes on the fountain, trying to figure out what it is. Tevaga sneaks up the passageway to the north getting a glance at the room beyond. A table, chairs but still no goblins. Avin listens closely, he can tell there are five goblins arguing over a lost precious, who has taken it and he hears a name, “Bucktooth”. Before anyone can stop him, Rukh shoves his head into the fountain washing his dirty hair. The glow quickly fades, the water fouled. Ianthe finishing up her inspection bitterly informs the group that it WAS blessed by the goddess Desna and filled with water which WOULD have given a boon to anyone willing to offer a bit of gold.

Tevaga sneaks around the corner to reveal more of the room to the north. Five goblins are still arguing and a dejected looking goblin with a crown sits quietly on a throne before them. The group enters the view of the goblins and Ianthe takes the lead in negotiations with the king who calls himself Fatmouth. He offers to let the group peacefully though his throne room and towards where the cow killing dragon lives, if they are willing to first bring back the dragon toy that his sister Bucktooth had stolen. With warnings to avoid, holes, spikes and fire the group sets off to the east where Bucktooth is expected to be found near the spiderwebs. They travel through the room with the dimmed fountain (minus Rukh who stares untrusting at the group of goblins) and come to a door.

In the room beyond there are carvings on many of the floor tiles and two stone statues stand to either side of a shiny gem on a pedestal. As each person steps through the door a voice booms “APPROACHWITHHUMILITYANDLIVE!!!!” Ianthe, being the most humble of the group, leads the way, bowing and kneeling as she gets to the first runed tile. As she bends down on it, cones of fire shoot from the statues, covering every runed tile and narrowly missing her bowed head. In this way Ianthe makes her way to the gem. Tevaga crawls over too, fiddling with the statue in an attempt to disarm the fire. Fire shoots out, the trap too complicated but still easily avoided by the group. Ianthe takes the gem, which is warm in her hand and gives it to Avin for inspection. He explains that it’s the Energy Heart protecting the holder from certain types of damage once a day. The stone is passed to Charlotte who continues on to the door in the south wall. Rukh, possibly sensing that a fight was coming, leaves his guard of the goblins and joins the group.

Charlotte opens the door and thousands of tiny spiders scurry around, spiderwebs stretch from wall to wall. Avin nervously fortells, “We’re going to get fucked by a giant spider!”. There is a dead goblin laying in the room and as Charlotte steps towards it a giant spider attacks, biting her in the face! Charlotte is knocked unconcious. Tevaga keeps ranged and hits the spider with arrows while Rukh sweeps Charlotte behind him to a safer spot where Ianthe heals her. Charlotte drinks her potion to stop the bleeding the spider inflicted and Rukh finishes the spider off. Avin steps up and inspects the goblin body where he finds a wooden dragon toy, 14 gold for the group fund and a wand of magic missiles which he keeps. The group considers killing the goblins and taking the toy, but it’s determined to be of little value and Ianthe talks the group into working with them instead of slaughtering them.

Before they turn back, they decide to explore the passageway to the north. Tevaga sneaks up but no danger is found. They inspect a runed wall which says something about goblins avoiding the lair of the worm, which breaths death. Avin presses runes on a pillar which gives him water breathing and he heads north to the edge of the water, beyond it there lies what looks to be some useful goods. He calls for the group to back him up but everyone keeps their distance as he pokes at the water with his staff.

REEFCLAW appears from the depths! A horrible crablike creature that snaps it’s giant pincers. Tevaga steps in stabbing with her new dagger. Avin retreats, not being made to withstand any hits. Rukh rushes forward, throwing the dead body of the goblin king’s sister towards the monster. The body sailed over Reefclaw missing it entirely and he responds by grabbing onto Rukh with both of it’s powerful claws and squeezing him in a death grip. Charlotte sweeps around from the side and finishes off Reefclaw, releasing Rukh.

400exp for passing the room of fire!
400exp for defeating the giant spider!
135exp for solving the riddle of the magic pillar!
20exp for working it out with the goblin king.
20exp for rukh (forget why)
50exp for tevaga for the notes.

Introduction session

Introduced first is the Dwarf, Nommin, who immediately goes back upstairs to get ale. A human, Charlotte, steps in next, striding straight into the room, ignoring Ursula the innkeeper. She sits on an old looking chair, which breaks. Instead, she leans against the wall. A young wizard, Avin, follows her, sitting on the floor next to a door, but first cleans the spot with a spell. A cat jumps down from his head and curls up on his lap. An Aassimar (Ianthe) and two half orcs (Rukh and Tevaga) enter the room and look around. Ianthe tells Ursula that the basement will do. Tevaga thrusts a fist full of gold at her, and Ursula figures out that she wants a round of ale for his companions. Ursula leaves.

Create Adventure companyStep 1: name?Still undecided?

Ursula and Nommin return with ale. Ursula hands it out and Nommin complains that everyone got free booze. Ursula then hands Ianthe a parchment describing a call to investigate cattle missing/dead/mauled. The locals worry that a humanoid may be next. This is a personal favour for Ursula and as such the first month is covered if we do it, as well as receiving an award on completion. We decide to head out to the farmlands and ask around. Could be Goblins? Ursula leaves us alone to settle in.

We choose some rooms…

And then head off into the town.

We get a ring from a shop (magical ring). After much negotiation, Tevaga steals it. She keeps it but knows nothing about it. Avin promises to explain the ring’s affects later.

After coming to the farm land we find a small gathering of farmers around what appears to be a dead sheep that has some teeth marks on them. We inspect a sheep corpse for giant’s teeth. Nope, not giants. However, it is something large with claws. Footprints; clearly a gang. We follow tracks to what looks like a dead end. Nommins inspects the wall and tells us that the green curtain of moss actually covers an entrance. As Ianthe inspects it, Goblins burst out.

Right off the bat a few of the Goblins start hitting on Ianthe and injuring her, this puts Rukh in a frenzy that ends up him beating two goblins to a pulp. He picked 2 up by their heads, walked slowly to the side and during this one got loose and what happened then is just brutal! Rukh in his anger used the one Goblin he had as a club and beat the one that got loose to a pulp

We then proceed to beat the ever-loving shit out of the remaining Goblins.

Half way through the fight, Gwyane, a Dwarven Paladin, charges down the hill and joins us in our fight.

After the fight Rukh passed out from his frenzy and is currently laying in a puddle of blood and remains of 2 Goblins.
Gwyane retrieves Ianthe’s dagger from the dark cave while Avin inspects the statue. Although melted, he recognises it as the God of fortune, Desna. Gwyane informs us that the statue is quite old.

We take 175 gold coins which we decide to save in the company coffers.